Cornitos Nacho Crisps Tikka Masala

The micronutrients (Vitamins/Minerals) play an important role by ensuring proper functioning of cells and tissues. 

 

Each vitamin and trace mineral play a specific role in the body. For example,  Vitamin C acts as antioxidant protecting cells from environmental damage, healing wounds and maintaining connective tissue whereas minerals like sodium, potassium and chloride function as electrolytes that assist in communication between cells necessary for nerve impulses and muscle contraction. 

 

Some products mimic the nature by adding artificial vitamins or minerals  which have an identical form and function to those found in nature, but they are manufactured synthetically to meet extremely high standards of processed products.

Product with decent amount of Dietary Fibre (5%-10% of day's recommended intake) is better than a similar one with zero or negligible amount of fibre) - at least it's a start! 

Packaged foods generally do not have Dietary fibre so a product with some amount of dietary fibre is always welcome. 

Fibre is not a nutrient but plays a key role in managing your body regularities - Bowel movement - Keeping constipation at bay, a control on Blood Sugar spike and check on blood cholesterol. 

However, follow the principle of balance and don't go overboard by eating only fibre rich food.

Trans Fats are one type of fatty acid formed during the food manufacturing process, which when consumed tend to increase the blood cholesterol level.

A claim of the term “Trans-fat free” or Zero Trans Fat on a food label means, where trans-fat is less than 0.2 g per serving of food, this is as per the current Indian food laws.

Therefore, it is important to check the serving size of the product you are consuming, have more than one serving and the nutrient will pile up.

HVP is created from cereals and legumes such as groundnut, corn, soy and wheat by processing that results in proteins being broken down into amino acids. One of those amino acids is glutamic acid which is a form of monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Though HVP is not same as MSG it does contain the compound. So, if you are sensitive to MSG you should avoid consuming foods that contain HVP. Also, take care the food ingredient label may use differen terms to indicate the source of HVP such as Hydrolyzed Groundnut Protein. 

Additives are added to the packaged foods for different reasons varying from increasing shelf life, to provide flavour and texture, increasing nutrition quality or required to manufacture some types of food. 

One of the ways to determine the degree of Processing is the number of additives you find in the ingredient list. The higher the number of additives greater is the degree of processing. Additives can be identified by looking for ingredients that begin with 'E' and have a number in them. 

It is generally recommended that food that is closer to nature is better hence it is better to choose food products with lesser number of additives.